Category: math

-a research project by Kevin Sonico and Louis Cheng (grade 8/9 Math teachers) Terms such as benchmarks, competencies, standards, and outcomes are used interchangeably (Brindley, 2001) to indicate objectives that students must achieve. Hereafter referred to as outcomes-based assessment, the … Continue reading Outcomes based assessment: Planning for assessment tasks

Cynthia Nilsson~ Grade 9 Math/Science Pre-service teacherWerklund School of Education As a graduating student from the Werklund School of Education, experiencing my final practicum experience at Connect Charter, one of my professional goals was to focus on assessment for learning in a real and meaningful way, rather than only assessment of learning. With the support and mentorship of Louis Cheng, I was able to gain experience in implementing assessment for learning in a Grade 9 Math/Science class, by combining feedback loops with outcomes based assessment. The use of a system of feedback loops has been particularly effective throughout a long … Continue reading Outcomes Based Assessment and Feedback Loops

How to build a recycling centre? Our grade 7 students were tasked with designing a recycling centre for each of the 4 homerooms in Geometer’s Sketchpad. The result was a net that they printed onto a regular sheet of paper. Students then recreated the boxes from the printout to become scaled versions of the original.their hallway. To begin the process they deconstructed a box and plotted the lengths, angles and shapes into The second step was to design a recycling centre that could house paper, plastic and drink containers for refund. Working in groups, they developed their centres and created … Continue reading Grade 7 Recycling Centre Geometry

Darrell Lonsberry – Connect Charter School Principal It seems as though the pendulum is swinging once again, this time motivated by some people who are espousing a back to basics approach to mathematics education, in large part as a response to the most recent PISA results. I don’t want to remain mute on this, as mathematics education is near and dear to my heart. One of the difficulties in using results from standardized tests such as PISA, TIMSS or PIRLS to compare nations on the quality of their educational systems, and even in determining change over time within a single … Continue reading A Principal’s Perspective: Back to Basics

Heather Melville- Grade 4 Math and Science In July 2013, I had the privilege to work with students, teachers, Galileo Network experts and researchers at the University of Calgary. (Brent Davis – Professor and chair of mathematics education, Krista Francis Poscente – IOSTEM Director). We met in May to discuss the research portion of the spatial reasoning project. In that one day in May I discovered the importance of spatial reasoning as I went through my own testing and problem solving activities. I learned very quickly that this is a skill that needs to be taught and explored throughout our … Continue reading Spatial Reasoning

Erin Couillard and Carolyn ArmstrongGrade 6 Math/ScienceNot two weeks into this school year, my math teaching partner, Carolyn Armstrong, and I were lamenting the disarray and disorganization of student math journals. We commented to each other that the work that some of the students were producing was very disorganized, diagrams were drawn without rulers, answers were buried deep within the work and we were finding it hard to get a good sense of the student’s overall understanding of the problem. I had the good fortune of attending a two-day Anne Davies workshop in Canmore last week and she reinforced the importance … Continue reading Co-Constructing Criteria in Mathematics

Valerie Barnes and Jocelyn MonteithGrade 5 Math/Science Grade 5 students were recently given the following math problem. The assignment, feedback, submission and assessment steps are taking place in Edmodo. It has been great to see the comments on the assignment page where students are offering feedback, asking questions, and assisting with technical support. Assignments are due this week may the force be with them. Use your Problem Solving skills to solve this problem. Once you have completed the THINK time (independent work) and proved that you have solved the problem during PAIR time (getting and giving peer feedback) you are … Continue reading Grade 5 Math Problem

Candice Shaw~ Grade 7 Math/Science After reviewing integer addition and subtraction, and order of operations, I gave my Grade 7 students a challenge. This became a competition between many students and myself. The problem is as follows: Given the following expression, What is the greatest solution you can create? What is the least solution you can create? Rules:You can only manipulate sets of brackets – the order of the numbers and symbols cannot change.You can use as many sets of brackets as you wish. Upon beginning this problem, students were very engaged to come up with the best answer. We … Continue reading Inquiry in Math: Order of Operations

Kevin Sonico~ Grade 9 Math and Science Some have referred to them as glorified whiteboards. SmartBoards have had the unfortunate reputation of digitizing technology that was already in its own way a useful tool. Some teachers may have even requested for the removal of SmartBoards for the use of that valuable real estate behind it. The challenge is the to rethink of how we can use them differently in our classrooms. So instead of thinking of them as expensive blackboards or overhead screens where we only project content, let us make them more dynamic and interactive. Perhaps we can start … Continue reading Using the SmartBoard to Teach Algebra

Heather Melville ~Grade 4 Math/Science What is Pi? Why are we celebrating Pi Day? Didn’t you spell Pi wrong Mrs. Melville? March 14th turned into deep mathematical discussions for the 4.3 and 4.4 students. Rather than thinking the concept of Pi was too difficult for the students to comprehend, we explored what knowledge we already had and applied it to a new idea. Our math class began with a read aloud book titled; “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi” by Cindy Neuschwander. We discussed the character names and what they were mathematically (radius, diameter, circumference, geometry and symmetry). The … Continue reading Pi Discoveries with Grade 4